Success Keys for People Working from Home

We all want to do something extra, something of our own and some of us work on weekends or late night hours back. Working on your own hours in your pajamas whenever you feel like it and never having to leave your house but unfortunately, working from home is not necessarily all that simple. Sure, there is the advantage of forever avoiding rush hour traffic, but there is also the much more difficult than expected task of dividing at-home time with working-at-home time.

 “I am starving; I’ll just run out for a quick bite and get right back to work.”  The reasons are endless for procrastinating on getting work done. The key to successfully working from home is being able to differentiate when it’s time to work and when it’s time to simply be at home.

Okay, this was not intended to dash your hopes of successfully working from home; it can most certainly be done. For the doers, here are some of the suggestions from the experts :

1. Dress for work

Successfully working from home requires a disciplined mindset, and you need to take yourself seriously. This might seem silly. You may ask, “Why can’t I work in my underwear,no one will know.”  Well, you will know. If you went to the office in your underwear, there’s no way anyone there would take you seriously, and deep down you know you won’t either.

2. Be truly accountable for your time

Seriously write down and track your time spent working. This is a great way to begin to hold yourself accountable for your valuable time spent. Journal what you did throughout the day, and be honest if you find yourself chatting on the phone when you really should be calling in those orders.

3. Work with a buddy

Peer pressure is a fantastic source of accountability. If you are lucky enough to know another person who works from home, set up days to work together to be sure each other is keeping up with work-at-home best practices. Doing this may also help you catch on to techniques that work for your fellow at-home worker or even smart house/work division ideas.

4. Know when to get away

No one is perfect, and sometimes prioritizing your work when you’d rather be doing the laundry (hard to believe) might mean that you need to get out of the house. Heading out to the library or a coffee shop is a great idea to avoid those distractions as well as making a nice change of scenery. Working at home and living at home means you might not be getting out much!

5. Avoid multi-tasking

Blending your work to-do list, your home to-do list, and your things-I-just-want-to-do list can become a work-at-home nightmare. Getting a few things done for work, then unloading and then checking Facebook before getting back to work may seem harmless, (it’s all stuff you need to get done anyway!) but it’s not the way to maximize your productivity.

6. Stay focused

Like I mentioned above, staying on task is vital to successfully working from home. You may find it easier to follow through if you’re able to have a separate work computer from your at-home computer. Ideally, a completely separate workspace would be perfect, but physically delineating between work and home is immensely helpful however you can do it.

7. Center your concentration

You don’t just need to hold your time accountable – you’ll also need to hold yourself mentally accountable. Being physically present doesn’t matter when you work from home if you’re not mentally present for your work.

8. Don’t self-destruct

It’s all about time management. If you’re looking into working from home, the concept of working 9 to 5, Monday through Friday at the office probably sounds dreadful. To succeed at home you’ll need to set your own “office” hours, though they may not be the same as conventional hours. Poor time management can mean you’ll find yourself working here-and-there seven days a week, and that’s the fast track to a major burn out.

The great perks of working from home can all too often become the downfall of many work-from-home hopefuls. The key to succeeding in this unsuspectingly difficult line of work is, and always will be, personal accountability.

MUST FOR A BUSINESS WEBSITE

With Internet Penetration rate rapid increase, every small business requires an effective website.  Even the smallest business is expected to have at least some sort of web presence.  Companies like Hostgator India with Google providing free websites or simply paying the kid down the street to set up a run-of-the-mill boring website is more than likely not worth your money.  Being a smart small business owner, your website should be a money maker, not a money-taker.

Every business website worth your money should have the following 6 essential features:

1.  Information Capture Form

Having an Information capture form can be priceless. Often, viewers of your site will be visiting at off-business hours, and though they may want to contact you with questions or business, but probably due to some reason they don’t,  for e.g.: No time to contact you or they forget till morning.  Even the best website may not be able to convert a looker into a customer but allowing your website visitors to give you their information, will make 24X7 Open Hour service.

2. Social Links

Today with most of people are connected using Facebook, Twitter, and linked in, etc. and spend more times in reading every article online. You know, very social website has its own tiny icons offering, “Share this,” “email this,” or “like this.”  These little icons are a great way for word to be spread about your website or information on your website.  Allowing your readers to share your information is essentially a customer testimonial that they like what you have to say and want to share it with their friends.

A website is likely not enough for most business’ web presence these days.   Creating these social media links on your webpage will create a sort of circular rope of connectivity, which is fantastic for search engine optimization.

3. Contact Information

An emboldened “Contact Us” page, as well as reiterated near the top of the homepage, and contact information at the bottom of each page are a great idea even if they are ever so tiny. This gives confidence to your customers about your presence and creates a trust on you. This one seems really obvious to have the basic business contact information on the site, but it happens!  Also there’s no reason to hide this information.  A lot of the time, for whatever reason, it’s difficult to find a basic phone number and address for a given company.  Having a phone number, address, and email address in more than one location isn’t a bad idea, either.

 

4. Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Well, there is an old saying - No better marketing than word of mouth marketing.  Well, in this day and age, customer reviews and testimonials on your website are just as close as we can get. Of course your own website content will scream from the rooftops how great of a company you are, but having the word of satisfied customers makes your claims slightly more believable.

 5. A Blog

To optimize your search engine blogs are a great way to drive traffic to your website.  Blogs are like a more personable voice for your company.  Blogs are great to upload new information and exciting news about your company more frequently than you would for your webpage.

Simply put, blogs help make Google happy, and search engine optimization is all about making Google happy.  The best way to make the almighty Google happy is to refresh new information frequently, have a lot of it, and include a lot of key words.  The happier Google is with these simple factors, the higher your website will appear on a Google search list. A blog is the surefire easiest way to go about doing so.

6. Newsletter Sign Up

Similarly to a blog, a newsletter allows viewers of your site to sample your product or services without yet having to buy into anything.  A newsletter can help build up those tentative but interested prospects into actual customers or clients through constant contact.  The content of your newsletter can be similar to that of your blog, but sending a newsletter is actively and consistently contacting your database with your unique information.

It may seem that this is an awful lot of work for a product we can’t physically touch, but investing in your website may be one of the smartest moves you’ll make to really launch your small business to new levels.

MARKETING STRATEGIES START UPS MUST USE AT INCEPTION

The very things that are considered drawbacks of owning and running a small business can be easily leveraged to become your company’s greatest strengths. By simply building that close, one-on-one rapport with your contact list, you’ll inevitably be ahead of the multitude of faceless mega-chains. Sure, adding that personal touch takes a bit more time and effort than may sound like fun, but in reality, by building these relationships you are also building and marketing a friendly company brand.

There are a few different ways to market a small business with little or no money. A modest marketing budget doesn’t mean that a smaller company can’t get off the ground. Here are seven free or inexpensive marketing ideas perfect for any small business:

1. Email

These days, it seems more common for people to have an email account than a home phone number. Take the opportunity to gather the email addresses of all of your contacts and compile a few different categories (example: vendor, past client, prospective client, etc.) to blast out a few different marketing pieces on occasion. Creating a consistent marketing plan for each of these categories and sticking to a timeline will ensure that your contacts are keeping your business in mind.

2. Freebies

Sure, this may put a dent into the company bank account, but offering free samples or related freebies is a tactic proven to convert prospects into clients. If you have a business that offers a unique product, consider providing smaller samples of the product to interested but hesitant prospects. Giving a taste of the product demonstrates high confidence in the merchandise and will build consumer trust.

If your small business is a service-based company, offering something as simple as a custom pen with the businesses contact information or slogan may do the trick. Offering these types of freebies isn’t necessarily demonstrating the abilities of your business, but it is offering a token, however small, as a gift. Plus, who doesn’t love free stuff?

3. Business Cards

Having a business card to hand out to customers or new acquaintances with your name, title, and contact information is great. But why not make the most of that business card and add a little something extra? Utilize of the blank back of that card and add a unique web address to access further information about your product or services or even extend a special offer.

4. Thank You Notes

This is a personal touch that every small business can afford. Take 10 to 20 minutes out of a day, once a week, to thank a few special regular clients or individuals who sent a referral your way. Finding a piece of personal mail that isn’t a bill in your mailbox these days is, sadly, quite a unique occurrence. Pleasantly surprise your customers with quick thanks that will undoubtedly build a positive connection to your business.

5. Invoices

This is a piece of regular correspondence between many small businesses and their clients. It costs nothing extra to add a little more to that necessary billing process. It could be as simple as adding a branded signature in those blank spaces in the invoice to thank clients for their business or offer bit of helpful information related to your industry. If you’re feeling really personable, get out the pen while stuffing the envelopes to handwrite a quick personal thank you, complete with their name and your signature.

 

6. Online Offers

An offer doesn’t necessarily have to cost the business much money – or any. Enticing clients via email, social media or on conventional marketing pieces to visit your website to print out a coupon for 10% off or a special new customer incentive can be just the thing. If you’re feeling adventurous, you may want to check out online discount sites such as Groupon to build your business by extending a special offer to a completely new pool of prospects. Just be aware that these sites are far from inexpensive.

7. Referral Encouragement

For many small businesses, a strong referral base can make or break their bottom line. By providing that extra level of customer service to make your company stand above the norm, you’ll inevitably build a strong customer base, happy to promote your company; sometimes you might just need to ask! This could be as simple as reminding pleased clients that your company is strongly referral-driven.

SIDBI FOCUSES ON SME - SETS A TARGET CORPUS OF 500 CR.

Start Ups with Innovative and High technology businesses need capital to grow and Venture Funds are recognized globally as the most suitable form of providing risk capital to innovative and high technology businesses. 

In order to meet the venture capital needs of SME units and enable them to achieve rapid growth by taking advantage of opportunities in the emerging sectors, SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd. has set up SME GROWTH FUND.

SME GROWTH FUND is registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as a Venture Capital Fund and has been structured as a unit scheme to make primarily equity or equity-related investments in the growth oriented businesses having significant business activity in India. The Fund seeks to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns for its contributors through long-term capital appreciation. The fund has a targeted corpus of Rs.500 crore with a life of 8 years.

TARGET GROUP

The focus of SME GROWTH FUND’s is to invest in unlisted entities in the small and medium enterprises in manufacturing as well as services sector as also businesses providing infrastructure or other support to SMEs. The Fund may also invest very selectively in listed entities, to take advantage of attractive opportunities in growing companies.

The Fund will typically invest in companies at early stage as well as in second round financing for those with a track record of proven technology or business model and opportunities for growth and earnings.

SME GROWTH FUND will focus at wide range of growth sectors, such as life sciences, retailing, light engineering, food processing, information technology, infrastructure related services, healthcare, logistics and distribution, etc.

INVESTMENT PATTERN

Equity or Equity-linked capital investment are primarily mode of financial assistance by SME GROWTH FUND. It shall also endeavor to provide mentoring support and other value addition to enable the funded companies to achieve rapid growth and achieve / maintain their competitive edge in domestic and international markets.

The Fund will seek a strategic stake in the funded companies with board representation and other rights as venture capital investor.

INVESTMENT CRITERIA

SME GROWTH FUND is looking for investment in projects offering potential for attractive growth and earnings. Key criteria for project selection are –

— Strong and committed core team: The Fund will look for businesses managed by a team with a demonstrated performance track record, commitment and energy.

— Growth potential: The Fund will like to invest in promising businesses having potential for sustainable high growth.

— Long-term competitive advantage: The Fund will prefer to invest in innovative business operations with a sustainable competitive advantage.

— Viable business plan: The venture should have a viable business plan which offers above average profitability leading to attractive return on investment.

— A Clear exit plan: The Fund, being of limited life, will seek to invest in ventures offering a strategy for clear exit within a reasonable time period. The exit could be by way of IPO, offer for sale, merger and acquisition or sale to a strategic or a financial investor.

— The fund is presently in the divestment stage.